Road Trip to Atlanta

Getting a Nascar ticket for your birthday, for a race on a track 1300 miles away, is a lot like getting a puppy for a gift. You love the gift but that free gifted puppy ends up costing you a small fortune. Oh it's all worth it but it's a fortune all the same. Not to mention you get attached to the little thing and then you actually get the unpleasant job of having it "put down". But I digress. So my super wonderful Nascar ticket Jerry got me ends up costing us over a thousand bucks. But it was worth it and I'd do it again.

I kept a small journal of our road trip. It reads something like this:

Thursday 10/25/07

12:50 PM left Brainerd (Makita driving)

12:50 PM stop by McDonalds

12:51 PM kept on going by McDonalds...big bus full of blue hairs lined up out the door

1:02 PM 11.8 miles..both of us yawning

1:13 PM 22 miles stopped at McDonalds in Garrison

1:18 PM leave Garrison

1:27 PM put in first CD

1:39 PM first road construction

1:40 PM end of construction

2:05 PM ran out of things to talk about

2:46 PM 2nd CD and 1st bag of sunflower seeds

2:48 PM Mike calls with a suit tailoring story..we get disconnected due to crappy cell service

2:56 PM 3rd CD (not liking them it would seem)

3:16 PM 142 miles 2nd road construction

3:18 PM end of construction

3:35 PM Entering Wisconsin...lost count of how many lousy cd's

4:01 PM turned on XM's Comedy channel

4:49 PM 249 miles construction

4:56 PM 255 miles end of construction

5:15 PM 277 miles gas stop 21 gal $2.82/gal $60.00 13.01 MPG

5:26 PM back on the road..changed drivers to Kimkay

5:52 PM 308 miles para glider sighting

6:15 PM dinner of turkey sandwiches from the cooler

7:56 PM 452 miles Enter Illinois

8:41 PM 500 miles

8:45 PM Stop at rest stop 507 miles

8:55 PM Left rest stop...changed driver to Makita

9:44 PM 558 miles gas stop 21 gal $2.99/gal $63.00 13.38 MPG

9:47 PM back on the road

10:59 PM almost 1/2 way 623 miles

12:10 AM 716 miles stop at rest stop Green Creek..saw two women that had just gotten married....to each other. Changed driver to Kimkay

1:55 AM 824 miles fuel stop 21 gal $2.90/gal $61.00 12.64 MPG

2:08 AM back on the road

3:00 AM stopped at rest stop Metropolis 877 miles. Changed drivers to Makita

4:35 AM 972 miles Tennessee

5:00 AM 1000 miles

6:39 AM 1107 miles fuel stop 21 gal $2.70/gal $57.50 13.29 MPG. Change driver to Kimkay

7:58 AM 1180 miles stopped at Dalton Walmart

8:17 AM back on the road

8:35 AM 1200 miles

9:24 AM 1253 miles changed drivers to Makita

10:00 AM 1289 miles stopped for ice at Krogers

10:12 AM back on the road

11:00 AM Friday 10/26/07 in our campsite 1300 miles.

While at the track Friday we visited all the vendors and looked at all the exhibits. Saturday we went to the truck race and ass-wipe Kyle Busch won. I was pulling for Mark Martin.

Sunday Jerry showed up and we had great seats under the canopy 68 rows up on the start and finish line. The canopy was great for keeping the sun off you. And we could see the entire track really good. Everything was perfect...except the woman sitting next to me. Huge Jeff Gordon fan. You'd think this would please me. Well it did initially. But as the race waged on so did her over zealous cheering and jumping around. I didn't see much of turns one and two. I did see a lot of her ass in my face. You would have thought that Jeff was leading the thing. She was so excited. She would even cheer when he'd pass a lapped car. Which lead me to believe she was missing a link. One brick shy of a load. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. A couple Coors shy of a six pack. Not pulling a full wagon. A few threads short of a sweater. Sharp as the edge of town. You get the picture.

The ride home Monday also took 22 hours, but it included an hour stop to eat and a half hour at an accident where a construction working had just gotten hit by a semi truck. We left the track at 8:21 AM Monday and arrived home at 6:30 AM Tuesday. And like I said earlier, it was a blast and I'd do it all again.